Herald Of The Times

OLD CLOCKS.

I love to contemplate an old clock one of those relics of bye-gone time, that come down to us wrapt in veneration, telling their tale of simple yet touching interest. How erect and prim it stands in yon corner, like some faded specimen of maiden antiquity : Its face bears evident marks of beauty-- of beauty decayed, but not obliterated. It is plain that it has seen its best days, but equally evident is it that it was the pride and ornament of its day: unrivalled among its companions. How many eyes have watched the even tenor of its ways, as it moved on in the never-ending,— yet still beginning journey of the hours.

Hours! aye, years have gone by, since that aged monitor of time first started on its course. And they who set out with it, in the morning of life, whose motions were as active and whose principles of vitality, if that may be so called which animates a clock, were as strong— where are they ? Do they yet linger in the walks of the village? Can they be seen under the old oak tree, or at the door of the cottage ? I see them not there: yet there stands the old clock, clicking blithely and patiently as ever.

The voice and footsteps are silent of those who journeyed up with it to the full period of a good old age. A new race has sprung up, long and far removed from the other : and as they too watch the progress of the old clock, their hours are fleetly passing by, and time with them will soon be at a close. How impressive then the lesson taught by that old clock, and the simple inscription on that dial plate— "Tempus fugit."